Partnership marketing is a form of marketing that many businesses don’t know about or don’t understand. This blog post is designed to help you understand the concept and explore whether your business could benefit from it.

Has your business formed any alliances? Many companies, small and large look to other brands for partnerships due to the mutual benefits gained.

Partnership marketing is about finding another business that offers complimentary services or products for you to work with, helping build your business and expand the offering to your combined customer base. For example, a builder and an architect could team up to provide a seamless experience where the customer only needs to make contact once rather than contacting both businesses.

Creating an alliance with another company adds value for your customers. Within the company it means that core competencies can be transferred between the two. In times of hardship, the correct partnership can help build your companies reputation.

The cruise lines are a classic example of this; the industry is constantly in the PR spotlight with stories of illness outbreaks to the occasional disasters at sea. To overcome this, the cruise lines have employed a partnership strategy bringing other brands in to the mix.

Carnival Cruise lines who seasonally visit Australian shores with a focus on families and in particular, their children, have created a partnership with ‘Dr Seuss’. The cruise line has their very own ‘Dr Seuss at Sea’ program. This alliance takes the spotlight of any negativity and strengthens the companies value offering for families.

Get the cogs in motion. Take a look at what businesses you have a relationship with that could assist you in growing

Image credit: Kalle Thomas, USA